Experimental characterization of the rectification process in ammonia–water absorption systems with a large-specific-area corrugated sheet structured packing

In this paper, the mass transfer performance of a large-specific-area corrugated sheet structured packing for ammonia–water absorption refrigeration systems (AARS) is reported. An experimental facility was used to test the performance of the packing. Experimental results of the temperature, ammonia concentration and mass flow rate of the rectified vapour are presented and discussed for different operating conditions including reflux ratio values from 0.2 to 1. The volumetric vapour phase mass transfer coefficient is calculated from the measured data and compared with different correlations found in the literature. A new correlation is proposed which was fitted from the experimental data. Finally, a comparison is made between the actual packing height used in the experimental setup and the height required to obtain the same ammonia rectification in AARS with different packings previously tested by the authors.